Senate eyes hitting Russia in slap to Trump

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), left, has continued to float a proposal to automatically sanction Russia for any certified interference in this November’s elections. "They’d better not do it again," he said. | Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

Bipartisan momentum is building in the Senate to crack down on Russia, even as President Donald Trump prepares to bring Vladimir Putin to Washington.

It’s a remarkable split-screen moment, with lawmakers pressing not only for new penalties against the Kremlin but for Trump to use more of the sanctions power Congress overwhelmingly approved one year ago. The effort is still something of a long shot — Trump himself fumed over the sanctions measure he signed into law and might resist — but the possibility of a follow-up Russia sanctions package remains very much alive despite the intense partisan pressure ahead of November’s midterms.

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That’s largely because of Trump’s jaw-dropping performance in Helsinki next to the Russian president, which will be a major focus of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

“I understand why members would want to respond to what happened in Helsinki, and I think there’s concerns about just where the administration is with Russia,” said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who left the door open to possible new sanctions legislation in an interview with reporters.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Tuesday announced a pending proposal that would prod Trump to act faster on implementing mandatory sanctions Congress approved last year partly in response to Russian interference in the 2016 election, while also slapping on new penalties.

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Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) separately pushed the administration in a letter to use its existing power to sanction the 12 Russian nationals indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for election cyber-sabotage earlier this month.

“I’m looking forward for them to move full steam ahead on those sanctions, but we’ve got 12 new characters that ought to be sanctioned aggressively,” Toomey said in an interview.

Sanctioning the 12 Russian military intelligence officers would amount to a tectonic shift for Trump, who has repeatedly slammed Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt” and cast doubt on the veracity of what U.S. intelligence officials describe as Moscow’s ongoing effort to disrupt the midterms. But that’s not stopping some Republicans from entertaining the prospect of new bipartisan action against Putin’s government following Trump’s controversial one-on-one with the Russian president.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Van Hollen have a proposal to automatically sanction Russia for any certified interference in this November’s elections. The measure has snagged five Republican co-sponsors in the week since Trump’s Helsinki summit, including Senate GOP campaigns chief Cory Gardner of Colorado. That legislation has sparked some concerns over unintended economic consequences, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) floated it Tuesday for the second time in two weeks as one option for the chamber to consider.

“The Russians better quit messing around in our elections,” McConnell told reporters. “I want to make that perfectly clear. … They did it the last time. They’d better not do it again.”

McConnell has teed up a series of hearings in the Banking and Foreign Relations Committees on Russia, with Wednesday’s Pompeo hearing serving as the first installment. Future hearings are expected to look at Russian involvement in Syria and the importance of NATO alliances, among other issues, while the banking panel is preparing for a classified briefing with the administration next week on sanctions policy.

A new congressional jab at Moscow might not go over well at the White House, where aides are gearing up for a possible second Trump-Putin meeting, but it could help the GOP sidestep the poor public perception of Helsinki.

Trump's approval rating sank to 38 percent in a national poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Quinnipiac University and conducted after his Putin summit, with 68 percent of voters reporting that they were "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about his relations with Russia.

However, progress on Russia sanctions ahead of the midterms might help red-state Democrats even more than Republicans — bolstering their argument about checking Trump when necessary and working with him when possible. Rank-and-file Republicans might also be reluctant to take any action that would put them crosswise with the president.

Graham was spotted leaving Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office on Tuesday and mentioned the sanctions bill when asked what they discussed. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said “I’d like to” see the chamber move against Putin on a bipartisan basis.

But possible resistance from Trump and the looming midterms aren’t the only forces working against the prospect of any bipartisan movement on new Russia sanctions. Banking Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), for one, isn’t yet convinced that senators should pile on new penalties before the administration uses all the authorities Congress gave it last year.

“It’s important, I think, that we remind ourselves that we just did a major Russia sanctions bill,” Crapo said in an interview, adding that last year’s legislation specifically cited “election interference.”

Crapo said the administration is “working aggressively to implement” the sanctions bill, which will mark its first anniversary next month, but Democrats and even some Republicans disagree.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said that "obviously I’m not opposed to doing more" on the sanctions front, "but I think they have the authority they need now." The Trump administration "need[s] to show why they're not" using more of those powers to punish Russia, Lankford said.

During a recent floor speech, Menendez counted seven provisions of mandatory sanctions included in last year’s measure that the Trump administration has yet to use. And Defense Secretary Jim Mattis pressed for waivers to one of those sanctions provisions that would allow U.S. allies to keep purchasing Russian military technology, a request that was narrowly granted in the final version of defense authorization legislation released this week.

A State Department spokesman said by email that the department "cannot comment on pending legislation. We also would not preview our sanctions activity.” The Treasury Department, which also plays a central role in sanctions implementation, did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump's White House initially attempted to defang the Russia sanctions bill, which was approved last year with only five opposing votes in the House and Senate, and Democrats have long lamented that the measure is being implemented too slowly.

The administration slapped penalties on several Russian companies and individuals for involvement in cyberattacks in March, using one component of last year's law, but Democrats are now appealing to their GOP colleagues for the sort of united front that could secure an even harder line.

"It's not about poking the president," Menendez said Tuesday. "It's about poking at Putin."